5 effective Facebook ad tools for small businesses

BIA/Kelsey predicts that U.S. social media advertising revenues will reach $15B by 2018 and locally targeted social advertising will see a year over year growth rate (CAGR) of 31.6 percent. Local SMBs are spending more of their marketing budgets on social media because they can strategically target the right consumers at the right times.

Check out these 5 Facebook ad tools that are helping SMBs increase customer acquisition and ROI.

1. News Feed ads

Ideal for increasing engagement as well as promoting events and special offers. These ads appear on the desktop or mobile newsfeed just like regular status posts, and they can include links, photos, videos, offers, events and more.

A study by Wolfgang Digital examining the clickthrough rate (CTR) of different types of Facebook ads reveals that advertising placed in users’ news feeds demonstrate a CTR of 2.09pc, making them 51 times more likely to generate clicks than their display counterparts.

2. Geo-­targeting, Interests and More

If you’re a small business looking to build a local following, you want razor sharp targeting. Geo-­targeting helps you find the right customer base for your business, provide content to your desired audience and generate leads in your targeted location.

For example, if I’m creating a Facebook post for my Real Estate Company here in Tel Aviv, I can set up Tel Aviv as the desired location for the post, add ZIP codes of nearby neighborhoods, and choose an audience with an interest in home buying

3. Custom Audience Targeting

Sometimes the most valuable audience you can reach is one that you already have a connection to. Small businesses can now upload their email or phone list into Facebook to create a targeted audience based on existing contacts.

For example, if you are a real estate company you can upload the list of customers who recently signed up for your first time homebuyers course on your website and then create an ad that’s targeted only to them.

4. Facebook Retargeting

Facebook retargeting empowers businesses to reach people on Facebook based on specific actions they’ve taken online, (such as visiting your website). For example, it may be more valuable for a real estate company in Tel Aviv promoting a new apartment building to show their ad to someone who has visited a number of websites over the past few weeks and has searched for “apartments in Tel Aviv.”

5. Conversion Tracking

When you advertise your external website and there’s a specific action you want people to take as a result of your ad (e.g. buying something), you can set up conversion tracking pixels so you know whether or not your ads are paying off.

After a conversion tracking pixel is set up on your website, when you create an ad for an external website, you’ll see the option to track conversions in the pricing section. If you track conversions, these will be reported back to you so you know exactly how many actions occurred as a result of your ad.

Does your business advertise on Facebook? Has it been effective? If not, do you intend to give it a try? Let us know in the comments!